Lemaitre, Emma

Savel, Sophie

Sombé, Patty

English

Archive Ouverte en Sciences de l'Information et de la Communication

HAL Id: hal-02394869
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02394869
Submitted on 5 Dec 2019
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Dogs with hearing and/or visual impairment are as
capable as any dogs to communicate and cooperate with
humans.
Sophie Savel, Emma Lemaitre, Patty Sombé
To cite this version:
Sophie Savel, Emma Lemaitre, Patty Sombé. Dogs with hearing and/or visual impairment are as
capable as any dogs to communicate and cooperate with humans.. XXVII International BioAcoustics
Cogress (IBAC 2019, Aug 2019, Brighton, United Kingdom. ￿hal-02394869￿
Dogs with hearing and/or visual impairment are as capable as 
any dogs to communicate and cooperate with humans
Sophie SAVEL1, Emma LEMAITRE2 and Patty SOMBE2
1 Aix Marseille University, CNRS, Centrale Marseille, LMA UMR 7031, Marseille, France
2 Non-profit organization “Blanc Comme Neige”, Saint-Denis-sur-Scie, France
Acoustic communication between dogs and humans is a growing
subject of research [1].
INTRODUCTION METHODS
XXVII International Bioacoustics Congress (IBAC), Brighton, UK, 31th Aug – 6th Sept 2019
[1] Miklósi Á (2015). Dog behaviour, evolution, and cognition. 2nd ed. Oxford (UK): Oxford University Press. Chapter 12, Communication, play, and collaboration; p. 252–269.
PERSPECTIVES
[2] Strain GM, Clark LA, Wahl JM, Turner AE, Murphy KE (2009). Prevalence of deafness in dogs heterozygous or homozygous for the Merle allele. J. Vet. Intern. Med. 23:282–286.
Improper breeding practices increase the
number of dogs with congenital deafness,
abnormally white coat and blue eyes. These
troubles are observed in dogs with
homozygous genotype for either the Merle or
piebald gene [2], which code for coat color
patterns. Homozygous Merle dogs also show
ocular disorders and vision impairment [3].
[3] Tamilmahan P, Zama MMS, Pathak R, Muneeswaran NS, Karti K (2013). A retrospective study of ocular occurrences in domestic animals: 799 cases. Vet. World. 6:274-276.
[4] Farmer-Dougan V, Quick A, Harper K, Schmidt K, Campbell D (2014). Behavior of hearing and vision impaired or normal hearing and vision dogs (canis lupis familiaris): Not the same,
but not that different. J. Vet. Behav. 9(6):316-323.
The 31-question survey, published online in French and English
languages, was about the following 7 points:
● General information (age, breed…) ● Coat and Eyes* color
● Ocular disorders● Hearing and Vision sensory status
● Dog-Owner Communication
● Canine activities
● Health and Behavior*
Flash this code to access to the English version of the survey →
A total of 277 dogs’ owners from 15 countries participated.
The dogs, aged at least 6 months**, were sorted into 4 groups***:
● Increase the size of the control group to about 200, for the same breeds and countries as those surveyed for sensory-impaired dogs
● Communicate with breeders, veterinaries, dog trainers and owners about abilities of impaired dogs to communicate and practice activities
● Perform video and audio recording of communication signals between sensory-impaired dogs and owners in a referential communication task
● Develop simple behavioral tests to assess the left and right sensory status separately for dogs with no access to BAER or ophthalmic tests
REFERENCES
A and B: Dogs with typical
Merle and piebald coats.
C: “Double-merle” dogs
with white coat and ocular
disorders.
RESULTS
There is very little data about communication abilities, which are
believed to be poor, in impaired dogs [4]. We addressed a survey
to owners of dogs with congenital hearing and/or vision
impairment, and, as a control group, of sensory-normal dogs.
● HNVI: Hearing Normal Vision Impaired (n = 22)
● HIVN: Hearing Impaired Vision Normal (n = 64)
● HIVI: Hearing Impaired Vision Impaired (n = 144)
● HNVN: Hearing Normal Vision Normal (n = 47)  NORMAL
IMPAIRED 
(n = 230)
The y-axes in graphs below represent the rate of dogs obtained within each group by response category. Two-by-two group comparisons were
assessed using Khi2 tests. Color brackets show significant differences (two-tailed p < 0.05 following Holm’s correction).
* Not presented here ** Data from 12 dogs aged less than 6 months excluded 
● Total, bilateral sensory impairment is more frequently reported for hearing than for vision. Vision impairment and ocular disorders are linked
● Hearing- and hearing-and-vision impaired dogs would produce more barks and grunts than other dogs to communicate with their owners
● The sensory modality(ies) of the dogs used by their owners to convey communication and training signals differ(s) between the four groups
● 59% of impaired vs. 87% of normal dogs practice at least one activity, but with no impaired/normal difference for tracking and visiting dog
● Olfaction of impaired dogs is much less frequently involved in owner→dog communication than in canine activities
*** Rates of males and females  balanced in all 4 groups
Communication between dog and owner
(*) AS: Australian Shepherd, BC: Border Collie
1-3 3-5 5-7 7-9 9-11 11-13
years
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
6-11
months
Mean age ± 1 s.d (years) 
8
6
4
2
Age range Breed
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
1.0
AS and BC (*) Other
pure
Other
mixed
Rate of white on head
< 0.50 0.50-0.75 > 0.75
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
m
ic
ro
p
h
-
ta
lm
ia
m
is
sh
ap
e
n
p
u
p
il n
o
e
ye
b
al
l
ca
ta
ra
ct none
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
1.0
Ocular disorders
Hearing
Vision
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
none
partial
partial
both
sides
total
both
sides
none
total
partial
total
Unilateral Bilateral
Severity of impairment
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
bark moan
whine
whimper
grunt
growl
groan
yelp
yap
none
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
sound touch sound touch touch all
gesture
+ +
odor
+gesture
Owner→dog signalsDog→owner vocalizations
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
agilitynone
herding
frisbeesheep
flyball
treiball
visiting
aged
persons
cani-
cross
bike
scoot
dog
dancing
tracking other assisting
epileptic
/diabetic
persons
Canine activities


Dogs with hearing and/or visual impairment are as capable as any dogs to communicate and cooperate with humans.

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Dogs with hearing and/or visual impairment are as capable as any dogs to communicate and cooperate with humans.

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